


tower of babel

by sweetwatersong



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Humor, Language Barrier, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-20 23:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16565366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetwatersong/pseuds/sweetwatersong
Summary: Someone very cleverly thinks up a spell to keep the Avengers from talking to each other. They've fallen victim to one of the classic villain blunders, though: Never underestimate Hawkeye.





	tower of babel

Clint flinched as his hearing aids shrilled in unison, a squealing worse than any he’d had since switching to Stark’s prototypes. He pulled them out and shook his head in an attempt to clear the ringing, scowling when he inspected the miniature aids. The subtle indicator light declared that all was well, despite any evidence to the contrary.

“Okay, is it just me, or did anyone else hear that?” He asked as he gingerly put the aids back in. His teammates were likewise shaking off the effects of the strange noise, but Natasha hesitated and frowned at him.

[“Say what, Barton? JARVIS, run some tests, see if you can figure out what that blast did.”]

Clint stopped, blinking, and stared at Tony. So did the rest of the Avengers, equally perturbed by the sudden shift in language.

“Tony?” Steve paused in rubbing his eyes.

[“What? JARVIS - JARVIS?"] Tony snapped his fingers. The noise that came out of the speakers, however, had more in common with an old dial-up than language. At that Tony rocked back on his heel and turned to look at them. ["Okay, I hate to ask this, but what just happened?"]

Yup. Still not English.

“Either you have hidden talents, Stark, or your suit’s translating everything you say into an Arabic variant I don't recognize. Care to explain?”

[“What I find disturbing is that I cannot understand either of you,”] Thor stated, expression troubled as he crossed his arms.

Clint gestured at him. “All-speak, buddy? That would be pretty helpful right now.”

[“I can’t understand any of you.”] Natasha clipped the Russian syllables with tight lips, not bothering to hide her increasing worry. Given that Clint couldn't get even the basics of her words, despite the boredom-induced training sessions she'd subjected him to, she wasn't alone.

[“The blast.”] Steve stopped, then tried again in what Clint was willing to bet was altered Germanic. [“It must have had something to do with that blast. And from that look I guess I'm still not speaking English to you all.”]

Bruce, thankfully not Hulked-out, shook his head. [“Guys, I’m not getting a word you’re saying.”]

“That was… Hindi? Maybe?” Clint squinted at him, then turned to Natasha. Her lips were pursed, her bearing unhappy. “And let me guess, none of you know what the hell _I’m_ saying. Well… this sucks.”

The flat expression told him that she still couldn’t understand him. He started to draw a breath and then paused.

 _Read?_ He signed carefully. Natasha caught what he intended and followed his hands carefully. Her relief told him the moment it worked.

 _Explosion change speech,_ she replied, at which Clint grinned.

Suck it, villain of the week.

 _Fun,_ he told her, and knew they were going to be all right at the faintest lift of her eyes upwards.

“All right, time to see who’s been paying attention to my signing lessons,” Clint told the group at large and motioned for them to circle up. “Okay…”

Time spent locating supervillain’s lair: 2.5 hours.

Property damage due to internal team miscommunications: $35,000.

The satisfaction of correcting Steve’s signs as Tony made JARVIS find YouTube ASL vids and Natasha demonstrated new words for Bruce and Thor: Priceless.


End file.
